A verb form question tests whether a subject needs a main verb, which says what it does or is. Sort the forms: -ing and to forms can't be main verbs alone. Then count the main verbs for the blank’s subject, setting aside parts with their own subject and verb. If it needs a main verb, find its true subject. In the present tense, one person or thing takes a verb with -s; more than one takes the form without it.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read from the blank to the period and check who each verb belongs to. Does deliberate tell us what the finalists do?
- Hint 2
Look at “Each of the finalists” and ask which word is the true subject. Could you replace that subject with it or they?
Step-by-step
Count verbs and match the subject
Step 1Find the missing main verb
Read past the blank to before the judges deliberate. Does deliberate give the finalists a main verb, the verb that says what they do? No, it belongs to the judges, and summarizing the community impact of their projects describes what the statement covers. So the blank needs a main verb; making and to make can't be one on their own.
- Step 2
Find the true subject
Which word is the subject of the missing verb? Each of the finalists includes a plural noun, but of the finalists tells us which group Each refers to. Set that phrase aside and we're left with Each, meaning each one taken alone. So the subject is singular even though finalists is plural.
- Step 3
Match the singular subject
Test the main-verb forms with Each replaced by it. The form make fits they, but it make doesn't work because this subject needs the singular form with -s. We say it makes, so use makes in the blank. Choice C.